Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/441



ORISS.A. 429 pretensions to being a local monarch-namely, Sankar Dera-has an assigned reign of from 1807 to 1107 1.C. It is only in the time of his successor, Gautama Dera, however, or between 1407 and 1036 B.C., that we begin to catch the faintest glimpse of Orissa. During this reign, the Sanskrit colonists are said to have pushed their way down to the Godavari river; but it is not till the reign of the sixth monarch, Mahendra Deva, that we hear of the capital city, Rajímahendri (Rájámundry), being founded. This brings us down to between 1037 and 822 1.C., and (apart from such unsafe chronology) the foundation of the Aryan sea-coast kingdom of Kalinga may be reasonably placed about that period. The last five hundred years anterior to the Christian era were those in which Buddhism effected its settlements in Orissa. The Ceylon texts place the advent of the Sacred Tooth in Puri at 543 B.C. About this time, the country was repeatedly invaded by the Yavanas from the north. In the present author's Orissa, the question has been gone into at length as to the identity of these lavanas, one of the most interesting enigmas of Indian history. From about 50 1.C. till 319 A.D), the palm-leaf writings yield no materials for the history of the Province ; but between 319 and 323 A.D., the last great inroad of Yavanas took place, and for 146 years their supremacy was complete. It is certain that, during the period of this long silence on the part of the records, the Buddhists honeycombed the mountains, and excavated the rock monasteries of Orissa, an account of which will be found under RANIXUR. In 174 A.D., the Yaranas were finally expelled by Yavati Kesari, the founder of the Kesari or Lion line, which ruled Orissa until 1132 A.D. The new dynasty was Brahmanical rather than Buddhistic from the first. Guided by signs and wonders, the orthodox founder of the Kesari line sought out the image of Jagannath in the jungles, where it had lain hidden during the Yavana occupation, and brought it back to Purí in triumph. During this period the great Sivaite temple at BHUVANESWAR was constructed. A warlike prince of the Lion line, who reigned from 941 to 953 A.D., perceived the military strength of the tongue of land where the Mahanadi first divides itself into several branches, and founded the city of Cuttack, still the capital of Orissa. The Kesari dynasty came to an end in 1132, and was succeeded by Chor-gangá, a king from the south, who by war, assisted by diplomacy, the sovereignty. The new or so-called Gangetic dynasty revolutionized the religion of Orissa. As the monarchs of the Province during the first seven centuries, before the accession of the Kesari line, had been Buddhists, and as the Kesari line during the next seven centuries had been Siva-worshippers ; so from the coming in of the Gangetic line in 1132 down to the present day, the reigning house have